Digital Divide. As Technology Continues To Advance, Online

In order to unravel college students’ desperation of choosing whether they should enroll in an online course, Content Marketing Specialist of Collegis Education, Kristina Ericksen, has devoted experience from taking online courses to produce and provide a solution for any student. Her written article for Rasmussen College, “What I Wish Someone Told Me BEFORE Taking Online Classes,” exploits the hidden challenges and the usual shortcomings that bears in the name of online learning, such as there are certain learning styles that are not meant for staring at a computer screen, so according to Ericksen, “an advantage to one student may be a disadvantage to another.” While learning styles is only one of her subtopics in the article,

Cathy N. Davidson suggests an innovative education system, providing an emphasis in today’s digital era, and claiming that the existing education system needs to be renewed according to the new expectations of the digital era. Davidson states that,” In the last half century, many changes have occurred in the technology field, however, classrooms and educational methods have remained fairly steady for the past years as well in consequence students are not being prepared for the future advances of society.” That being said, it is important to improve and to give a change to the current educational methods, adjusting them to the existing demands of the era that we are living and taking advantage of the resources that it provides. “What if we continued to the lesson of internet itself,

Technology has many attributes and applications that improve livelihoods. As a student myself, one of the most obvious advancements is in the field of education. Educational technology has slowly been integrated into classrooms over the last decade. Today, the basis of technology, digital literacy, is a crucial skill for academics. “Students who are digitally literate know how to effectively use technology to collaborate, create original content, and conduct in-depth research for academic purposes” (Dotterer, “Fostering Digital Citizenship In The Classroom”). Some worry that the use of technology will encourage people to “cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful” (qtd. In Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”).

In his 2011 article, “Reliance on Online Materials Hinders Learning Potential for Students,” David Smith attempts to build upon student’s obligated online interaction to make a case against online classes. Smith first shows how much today’s learners must use online materials by using the example of his own Alma Mater. By referencing his own experience at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln, with MyRED and EBSCO search engine, Smith lays the grounds for the focus of his argument. He then attempts to use what seem to be personal examples of experience with online coursework while begging the question through repeated examples. By failing to establish the credibility of his facts, attempting to force his own

Income inequality is the unspoken truth of American life. Millions of Americans live in poverty while the minority holds the majority of the wealth. This problem has become more severe in recent years, with the wealth gap increasing exponentially. While innovation drives economics in the free market, recent innovations have caused the wealth gap to become skewed. Broadband Internet is one particular innovation that has spurred economic growth but has hurt the lower class. Broadband Internet can be defined as “768 Kbps download and 200 Kbps upload” (Dunbar). Although there are many varying classification of broadband Internet, this definition will be utilized for the purposes of this paper. The non-adoption of broadband Internet by those living

In “Reliance on Online Materials Hinders Learning Potential for Students” by David Smith the author argues online education has some benefits students are also able to suffer. Smith begins his article with stating students are lucky for being able to have the amount of access they have to receive education unlike past generations. He goes on by stating “this variety has begun to work its way into academia, as well; more and more, it seems, organized instruction is moving beyond the classroom and into cyberspace” (Smith, Par 3). The “traditional” educational experience is slowly being taken over by the technology world.

Back in my days, we were not fortunate enough to... Gotcha! Did you expect that to be a dull story like our grandparents or parents may have told to show us how much more difficult their lives were? Not exactly, this writing is about how college students of this generation make use of digital technology. The wide spread of today’s technology via computers or smartphones results in constant connectivity to the internet. Social media, video gaming, information databases, and online classes, have affected college students’ studies, causes a wider academic gap between distracted students and self-disciplined students.

Information for this paper was collected through interviews with the VP of Student Services, the Associate VP of Enrollment Management, and the Director of Financial Aid. These interviews addressed distance learning, social media, operating systems, digital divide, and digital native. We discussed the trends of usage and the impacts on students and community colleges. Throughout this section, I will refer to these individuals as participates one, two, and three and this order is random to those interviewed. All participates where asked to participate in interview about technology in student services. They were provided with a copy of the paper abstract along with the following items to consider in regards to technology; current trends/issues in your area; changes since you entered the profession, and challenges.

Connected Nation (CN) is a national 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to bringing the benefits of broadband to all Americans, with a belief that the widespread access, adoption, and use of broadband-enabled technology has the power to improve lives. CN has pioneered broadband research, community technology planning and demand stimulation for over 10 years. In the last five years, CN has partnered with a total of 9 states and one U.S. territory to complete successful broadband-focused initiatives under the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s State Broadband Initiative (SBI). CN’s state initiatives have been active in Texas, Alaska, Nevada, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, South Carolina, and the territory of Puerto Rico.

In the United States and in the world, there is a digital divide related to knowledge and access to electronic resources. The personal pursuit of knowledge, career advancement, and the inequalities that some people encounter as it relates to electronic resources is what has been labeled the digital divide. To better understand the digital divide, a person must first understand the correlation between lifelong learners, adult education, and the digital divide. In the United States the thirst for knowledge is at an all-time high and many people may ask the question why?

In today’s society, so many people are continuing their education beyond high school. We realize that in order to make a decent living, a degree is most likely a requirement. In some cases even a bachelor’s degree is not enough to qualify for many positions. Nevertheless, thanks to technology, we now have the option to learn online or in a traditional classroom setting. There are very few differences between the two, and students need to understand that as much time and energy will need to be devoted to the online courses as on a campus. “A 2010 meta-analysis and review of online-learning studies concluded that online learning was as good as or slightly more effective than traditional face-to-face instruction” (Mendenhall, 2011).

It is no secret that technology plays a critical role in our society. In fact, it has become one of the most used items in the world, starting from personal computers and ending in smartphones, thus it was only a matter of time when educational institutions would start to utilize these gadgets in order to improve the overall state of current education. According to a U.S Department of Education (UDE, n.d) report, all 48 states, including the District of Columbia are now offering online education. Additionally, the report states that these schools operate on all kinds of scales, including state scale, district scale and charter scale, thus it would safe to assume that the whole state of current education in the United States is large and the whole approach is clearly technology based. However, despite the

Technology is changing every aspect in our lives, even the way we learn. Online classes are a rapidly growing trend it today’s society. Online classes are a cost-effective substitute for traditional courses and more convenient for many, so more schools and universities are offering this option. Due to the increase in online course enrollment, people are questioning if students truly learn something from online classes because it’s not a traditional learning environment. Online classes are just, if not more, effective as traditional classes because grades have increased and online discussions provide students with the chance to interact through networking while earning a degree for less than what it would cost to enroll at the same university.

Education has undergone significant changes because of the development of information and communication technology over the 21st century (Lin & Jou, 2012:2). As a convenient and inexpensive way to gain knowledge while pursuing higher education, online learning, a form of training or teaching that takes place over the Internet, has been considered as an alternative to traditional classroom learning (Zhang et al, 2004). This essay will argue that even though online learning has benefit such as flexibility which could outweigh traditional learning, traditional classroom learning might still not be entirely replaced. This essay will discuss positive and negative aspects of online and traditional learning in terms of four criteria:

I would like to share with you what I have recently learned about obtaining information through the Internet. The Internet is a tremendous potential source of information about virtually any imaginable topic of interest. However, because there is no regulation or quality control over what people choose to publish online, it is crucial to learn ways of distinguishing credible, reliable, factually accurate information sources from those that are not credible, unreliable, factually inaccurate sources. For example, websites that are maintained by government agencies, accredited university research programs, and licensed professionals are good candidates to be considered reliable sources of information online.